Some people could service cars, if they had the space, equipment and skills to do it.
For much of that period the people who could afford phones were not the ones who knew how to fix them. Part of it is that phones do more now. If you get an old flip phone it’s basically bulletproof and you don’t need to worry about repairing it (although you can typically swap out broken pieces). The problem is that you’ll be rockin an ancient flip phone. Once you start adding a bunch of stuff (capacitive touch screen, wifi, camera, bluetooth, etc) it’s gonna be harder to fix.
My desktop today is designed to be more serviceable than early computers were. I don’t need to solder anything, parts just fit together and there’s far better standards support. Did you ever have the joy of messing with autoexec.bat and config.sys just to get your mouse working? Do you remember what a PITA it was getting an old Soundblaster to work?
I’ve had a guy come out to repair by boiler, my dishwasher and (twice) my washing machine. Appliances are still serviceable but (just like in the old days) it usually involves calling someone.
Sort of.
Some people could service cars, if they had the space, equipment and skills to do it.
For much of that period the people who could afford phones were not the ones who knew how to fix them. Part of it is that phones do more now. If you get an old flip phone it’s basically bulletproof and you don’t need to worry about repairing it (although you can typically swap out broken pieces). The problem is that you’ll be rockin an ancient flip phone. Once you start adding a bunch of stuff (capacitive touch screen, wifi, camera, bluetooth, etc) it’s gonna be harder to fix.
My desktop today is designed to be more serviceable than early computers were. I don’t need to solder anything, parts just fit together and there’s far better standards support. Did you ever have the joy of messing with autoexec.bat and config.sys just to get your mouse working? Do you remember what a PITA it was getting an old Soundblaster to work?
I’ve had a guy come out to repair by boiler, my dishwasher and (twice) my washing machine. Appliances are still serviceable but (just like in the old days) it usually involves calling someone.